Welcome to the webbed and wired edition of R&R, aristotle. We’ll be doing the same sort of song and dance here as we do in print: reviewing the latest comics and cartoon-related books and ranting about trends and abuses and unfathomable foolishnesses. Each installment will stay here for about four weeks, with a new one coming in just about every other week or so. If you don’t have the time to ponder every punctuation mark in this deathless prose and merely want to see what might be there that would interest you, we suggest you scroll down the page looking for the bold-face type that heralds the notables who reside herein this week. So here we go with Opus 288 (and a reprise of Opus 287):

Opus 288: Fond Farewell to Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon (January 9, 2012).

Opus 287: Sixteen More Books Suitable as Christmas Gifts (December 20, 2011).

Opus 288 (January 7, 2012). It’s admittedly a trifle late for a Noo Yr’s wish, but it’s still the Year of the Rabbit, which comes with certain privileges, among them, the lateness license. So: hoppy noo yr, y’all. Otherwise, our glad tidings come mixed with sad ones: in December, two giants in the history of cartooning died, Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon, and we celebrate their lives and achievements at loving length, taking up, and resolving (to our satisfaction at least), the puzzles that cling to their careers: did Robinson create the Joker? And how much of the Simon and Kirby oeuvre did Simon draw? Also, a smattering of cartooning  news and a couple funnybook reviews. (Incidentally, from now on, the date of every opus is the date I finished writing it, which is usually several days before it is posted.) Here’s what’s here this time, in order, by department—:

NOUS R US

Wimpy Kid Sues Zombie Kid

Syrian Hands Healing

Ronald Searle Dies

Golden Apple Comic Store for Sale

New Berth for Editoonist David Horsey

Stan Lee in India

PASSIN’ THROUGH

Jerry Robinson

Joe Simon

Newspaper Comics Page Vigil

Celebrating Christmas in the Funnies

EDITOONERY

And the New 52

Funnybook Fan Fare

Number Ones reviewed: Green Wake, Blue Estate, Spaceman

Plus: The Kents no. 2, Catwoman no. 4, Cold War no. 2

ONWARD THE SPREADING PUNDITRY

More of the Happy Harv’s Political Sprew

Our Motto: It takes all kinds. Live and let live. Wear glasses if you need ’em.

But it’s hard to live by this axiom in the Age of Tea Baggers,

so we’ve added another motto:.

Seven days without comics makes one weak.

(You can’t have too many mottos.)

And our customary reminder: when you get to the $ubscriber/Associate Section (perusal of which is restricted to paid subscribers), don’t forget to activate the “Bathroom Button” by clicking on the “print friendly version” so you can print off a copy of just this installment for reading later, at your leisure while enthroned. Without further adieu, then, here we go—

NOUS R US

Some of All the News That Gives Us Fits

THE WIMPY KID ISN’T ALL THAT WIMPY in his corporate identity (namely, Jeff Kinney). As reported by Tim Kenneally via reuters.com, “Wimpy Kid, Inc., the copyright holders of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, on December 20 filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit against comic-book publisher Antarctic Press, claiming that Antarctic has violated Wimpy Kid's intellectual property with its book Diary of a Zombie Kid. According to the suit, Zombie Kid, published last August, is "substantially similar" to the Wimpy Kid book line, and ‘obviously intended to confuse the public into believing that defendant's books are addition to such series.’

            “In addition to depicting a backpack-carrying protagonist, the suit alleges, the Zombie Kid cover artwork bears a startling similarity to the Wimpy Kid series, including ‘distinctive striping along the spine, the hand-drawn pictures of the main character on the front and back covers, both illustrated so as to appear to be taped at each corner of the cover, and the miniature illustration of a male child's head located on the side of the book.’ The lettering is also confusingly similar to that of the Wimpy Kid series, according to the suit, with letters stylized so as to look brush-painted.”

            In addition to punitive damages, Wimpy Kid seeks destruciton of all Diary of a Zombie Kid books and any other infringing materials. A few days after the suit was brought, Antarctic Press agreed to cease and desist.

            There is at least one other Wimpy clone out there, something about a Dorky Kid, but it’s drawn in the manga manner so it has probably evaded Kinney’s eagle eye. Or perhaps the manganese renders the effort dissimilar enough to escape prosecution.

Syrian’s Hands Are Healing. Renowned Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat vows to return to cartooning in Syria as soon as his fingers have healed and he has retrained them to draw again. On August 25, he was ambushed by security services, who beat him, focusing on his face and hands, intending to send a message that he should not draw the cartoons he’d been drawing. The cartooning custom in Syria was to use symbols to represent the powerful when attacking them. But since April 2011, Ferzat deployed recognizable caricatures of President Assad and other leaders.

            Ironically, Ferzat had been encouraged to champion freedom and modernization by the same Assad before he became President. Thinking the heir apparent supported him, Ferzat started Al-Doman (the lamp igniter), an independent magazine.

            “But the fun was soon over,” reported Jannie Schipper at Radio Netherlands Worldwide. "When the regime realized after a few months that Al-Domari was not afraid of publishing sharp criticism, the censorship got worse.” After two years, the magazine ceased publication.

            Ferzat is convinced that the insurgents in Syria will win: "The response of repression and security that the regime has chosen, has failed. Now, people face the deadly weapons with bare chests."       

            Once he has retrained his fingers, Ferzat, who is recovering in Kuwait, will return to Syria. That's not a choice, he says. "I don't own a supermarket that I can freely open and close. Drawing cartoons is my only profession. The art is a gift from God, and I must continue to bring my message."

Ronald Searle Dies. Best known for his bristly comic drawings depicting the outrageously ghoulish machinations of the St. Trinian’s girls, and for his illustrations of the Molesworth books, written by Geoffrey Willans, which, as any fule kno (sic), tells of life at the boys’ prep school St Custard’s, cartoonist Ronald Searles died “peacefully in his sleep” Friday, December 30, in southern France’s Draguignan after a short illness—and just months after his second wife, Monica, for whom he scandalously left his first wife and family in the early 1960s, died in July. Searles was 91, the Guardian reported.

            Michael Cavna at ComicRiffs.com writes: “Searle will surely be best remembered for his St. Trinian’s boarding-school girls gone bad; through their brazenly wicked behavior, the artist was sending up the ‘proper’ British school system. These dark-humored hellions debuted in the magazine Lilliput the same year—1941—that Searle was captured by Japan and endured brutal conditions as a World War II POW (he drew with whatever he could find during this time, later publishing To the Kwai—and Back: War Drawings 1939-1945).”

            Searle “created an alternative to the conformity of Harold Macmillan’s Britain”, said his publisher Simon Winder, quoted in the Guardian. “He gave Britain in the 1950s particularly a sense of anarchy. He was extraordinarily skeptical about all forms of authority [and] there’s something just astonishingly anarchic about Molesworth and St. Trinian’s— that’s why they have appealed to so many generations.”

            Searles enjoyed a spectacular career as an illustrator and a member of the legendary Punch table when he returned to Britain after the war. We’ll have a longer and more appreciative obit next time in Opus 289.

Golden Apple Falls from the Tree. As a comic book store, the Golden Apple in Hollywood is not only a landmark in the neighborhood but a benchmark in the history of the revival of comic books. And it’s up for sale on eBay at a "buy it now" price of $679,000 (or best offer), reports ICv2, which continues the tale as follows: ... To Learn the Golden Apple Story and to Find out Where David Horsey and Stan Lee Are Going and to Celebrate the Lives and Achievements of Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon (And to Lay to Rest the Questions That Hover over Their Work)—and More, Much More—You Must Hie Thee Thither to the $ubscriber/Associate Section, Where You’ll Get More of Our News Reports and Penetrating Analysis. To Get There, Click Here.  And If You're Not a $ubscriber/Associate—

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